Take a honkin' good look at this crosswalk in Reading, Pennsylvania (North 5th Street Highway and South Temple Boulevard).

Take a honkin’ good look at this crosswalk in Reading, Pennsylvania (North 5th Street Highway and South Temple Boulevard). Now just imagine the engineering effort that went into its design, with all the components – the retaining wall, the fence, the berm, the drainage, the street striping, the handicapped grading, the textured paving blocks…. Now imagine the politiical process – the design review, the code enforcement review, the DOT sign-off, the planning and zoning board approval. Okay, now tell me how the fuck could any civilized people arrive at such an outcome, not to mention laying out the money to pay for this exercise in idiocy? Here is further proof that the Law of Perverse Outcomes rules: People get what they deserve, not what they expect.

Another corner (below) of what is a four way intersection with eight corners.

About James Howard Kunstler

James Howard Kunstler is the author of many books including (non-fiction) The Geography of Nowhere, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, Home from Nowhere, The Long Emergency, and Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology and the Fate of the Nation. His novels include World Made By Hand, The Witch of Hebron, Maggie Darling — A Modern Romance, The Halloween Ball, an Embarrassment of Riches, and many others. He has published three novellas with Water Street Press: Manhattan Gothic, A Christmas Orphan, and The Flight of Mehetabel.

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Amazing! But say what you will, my civil engineering homies made sure that if this crossing remains completely unused by humans, it won’t be because of puddles of standing water by golly. (Not one, but TWO curb inlets for this critical crossing!)

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Too Much Magic

Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation

The nationally best-selling author of "The Long Emergency" expands on his alarming argument that our oil-addicted, technology-dependent society is on the brink of collapse—that the long emergency has already begun. Published by the Atlantic Monthly Press.